1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to controlling the use of a telephone, and more particularly to permitting a telephone user to establish detailed criteria governing the use of his telephone.
2. Related Art
The telephone is an integral part of everyday life. Users, both commercial and residential, employ the telephone to great advantage in every field and in every task, great and small. However, in an era of tighter budgets, the cost of telephone use has surfaced as a significant expense. Users take great pains to limit their use of the telephone as a way to conserve scarce financial resources. But a telephone user may not be the sole user of his telephone.
A typical telephone user shares his telephone with others, whether voluntarily or not. Obviously, the budget-conscious user will seek to limit the telephone costs incurred by the user's "guest users."
One approach available to the user is simply to request the frugality and forbearance of the user's guest users and their telephone friends. However, when these guests are teenage children in a residential setting, these pleas may fall on deaf ears. Unauthorized after-hours users in a commercial setting are even less likely to comply.
Another approach is available through limited services offered by some Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs). One such service permits a user, by making a special request, to completely block outgoing calls to certain toll exchanges (for example, "1-900" telephone numbers). Another such service permits the user, also by making a special request, to block incoming calls from a limited number of user-specified telephone numbers.
One disadvantage of these approaches is that these services are inflexible. For example, outgoing calls can only be blocked from entire telephone exchanges, and incoming calls can only be blocked from a limited number of telephone numbers. Further, the limitations apply around the clock. Thus in a commercial setting, a user cannot limit after-hours use without limiting business-hour use also.
Another disadvantage of these services is that they are difficult to modify. They are imposed only after the user makes a special request is made to the telephone company, and are not easily altered.
What is needed, therefore, is a quick and easy way for a telephone user to control telephone access by time of day, calling party, and the like.